The daughter of Severus Snape
by Dakota S
Summary: How disruptive a tiny piece of parchment can be...There's a new student in Hogwarts, and she's about to change Severus Snape's life forever, and he's not the only one either. Involves: Snape, Harry, OC and many more characters. Read to find out I guess!
1. Chapter 1

A/N - Hi! Thanks for taking the time to click on my story. Hope you enjoy it and if you read it, please review it! It makes me happy and I'm always curious to hear opinions, either good or constructive criticism! Obviously, I don't own Harry Potter as it is owned and created by the brilliant J.K Rowling. (:

Thanks!

It's a new year at Hogwarts and fresh students are flooding the castle with youthful faces and wide eyed wonder. 'Brilliant' you may think, or perhaps 'marvellous' or 'just great!' or in the case of Severus Snape you may view it as a mundane necessity dulled over the many years of mediocre students with adequate talent and a few shining stars who's ability is tainted by their insufferable personalities. But this year, one student has a letter that will change his world forever.

Stood at the foot of the wide iron gates, Evangeline was shocked and shaking ever so slightly. A tiny figure silhouetted against the huge imposing bulk of the castle, the place she would call home for the foreseeable future as she embarked upon her academic career. Clad in her newly purchased robes they hung precariously on her willowy frame and her long black hair fell in straight cut curtains down her back and sloped slightly into her round, green doe eyes that gazed out unblinking from the alabaster skin that looked porcelain in the moonlight. Lost in thought, with eyes so wide that they seemed out of place in the narrowly contoured face she was unmoving with her hand clutched tightly around a roll of parchment that was crumpling under the pressure in her hand.

"All right students, if you'll just follo' me we'll 'av you up in the castle in no time" the loud, booming voice cut across her thoughts like a blunt axe, hacking them apart and bringing her back to reality and the cruel cutting breeze of the autumn night. The huge, imposing figure began to lumber off; clutching a lantern in his huge hands that seemed as though they could completely encase her head and petite sloping shoulders, but he had a friendly demeanour and she was not afraid. In one jerking movement the first years all began moving, in a giant tidal wave that left Evangeline being pushed and nudged in various directions as the herd of small cloaked figures jostled for positions leaving her feeling as if she were on the savannah, battling to avoid some hideous stampede. She was a shy girl, with a reserved nature who seldom spoke unless approached by another, it was as she was stumbling forward trying to remain on her feet that she tripped and fell hard upon her knees, feeling the cobbles bite hard into her delicate skin.

"Ouch" she hissed softly, scrambling to stand and falling again due to the many marauding people that seemed not to notice the figure that was writhing like an upturned turtle upon the floor. Giving up she heaved herself to her knees and rubbed her shoulder which was beginning to ache from the repeated collisions with other students. Slowly, the crowd began to thin and she found herself at the base of the throng. Getting to her feet she brushed herself down and tucked the wispy black strands behind her ear.

"Are you okay?" The words came from a small, bespectacled boy with messy black hair which stuck out at odd angles and fell roughly over his forehead.

"Oh, yes. Thanks, I fell over" she stumbled, averting her gaze toward the floor and continuing to rub her shoulder with an intensity that portrayed her discomfort.

"So, you must be a new student like me then?" The boy continued, unperturbed and with a wide grin, he was carrying the cage of a large white owl who watched Evangeline through the wide amber eyes that shone in an almost lamp like fashion as she turned her head, muttering softly. Watching her eyes pass over his bird the boy spoke again,

"This is Hedwig, she's my owl"

"She's lovely" replied Evangeline, glancing up briefly to meet the smiling emerald eyes of the young boy.

"we're going to be late" she continued, looking toward the castle and nodding slightly.

"Oh, right." Said the boy somewhat awkwardly, tearing his vision away from the orb like eyes of the strange, somewhat mysterious girl who was already beginning to recommence walking, jogging slightly catch up with the fast departing crowd of students.

"I'm Harry!" He said, jogging alongside her and continuing almost excitable conversation as they panted their way toward the castle and its heavy oak doors.

"Evangeline" she replied quietly, barely audible even above the gentle lapping of the lake, she looked around, making eye contact for just a split second as she swept the straight, unruly hair from her face.

"Great! My friend should be ahead somewhere, we met on the train. I didn't see you anywhere..."

"mmm"

And with that entirely unhelpful response they regained position at the back of the crowd who were being addressed by a stern looking woman in tartan who wore a pursed expression and a neutral expression.

"Good evening students, I am professor McGonagall. If you will follow me into the main hall, please" the voice was tart, direct and sharp but Evangeline couldn't help but feel it had a quality about it that she felt herself instantly warm to. With a quick swish of fabric she had turned on her heels and the group of eager students was moving again, following her through some tall doors in the high ceilinged building into a hall that was beyond Evangeline's imagination or indeed comprehension.

"Wow" she mouthed, almost silently.

"Pretty cool, huh? Ron told me all about this, his brothers all come or came here" the boy had reappeared alongside her and wash chattering away again but Evangeline was far from listening as she rolled her head back, watching the ceiling that twinkled back at her with the many stars that winked merrily in an inky black sky, complementing the hundreds of white wax candles that floated mysteriously; the effect was dazzling.

Professor McGonagall had ascended some steps and now stood in front of the expectant hall, filled not only with shining new faces, but also recurring students who sat chatting and laughing but falling silent under the cutting interjection of the imposing transfiguration teacher.

"New students, you will come up here when I call your name and the sorting hat will allocate you to your house, which you will be a member of for your time at Hogwarts School. So, without further 'to-do' I shall leave it to the sorting hat which will be followed by a speech from your headmaster before the feast begins" followed with a quick half smile of the pursed lips, McGonagall picked up the tattered old hat that sat unmoving next to her but burst into life as she placed it gently down upon the chair beside her.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, one and all

While you are here, try not fall

Foul of the beasts, the mayhem, the riot

Let me tell you of gryffindor's who'll never keep quiet

For they are the chivalrous,

The brave,

And the strong

Listen to me carefully, heed to my song

Let me tell you of slytherin,

The pure and the cunning,

Seeking victory always, in the race they are running

Now of ravenclaw, great heads on their shoulders

who will pore over books, over scrolls,

over folders

for they are tactical, thoughtful and wise,

With keen edged intelligence behind bright, noble eyes

Hufflepuff's are kind, with equality and fairness,

With good sense of justice,

they rarely are careless,

So now you have heard, of what you may be

So ask if you dare, come now...

Try me."

Evangeline watched, mesmerised as Professor McGonagall began calling names from a scroll she held in her taught wizened hands. Sometimes the hat would take only a second to decide, shouting a house name no sooner had it touched the delicate hairs on the various character heads. Then she watched as the curious case of the boy she had met, Harry Potter, as he argued strongly with the hat until it changed its mind and placed him begrudgingly into Gryffindor as he asked. She was impressed and couldn't decide which house she wanted to be in, she knew that she had to find the potions master, Severus Snape and deliver the message in her hand and she understood that he was the head of slytherin house. But she couldn't help but feel that she didn't possess the attributes for slytherin.

"Evangeline Taylor" The sharp voice cut her thoughts rather like a scalpel this time and she walked toward the front of the hall shuddering slightly as coursing ripples surged her tiny body and her heart beat a most violent tattoo against the inner workings of her chest.

Still shaking, she felt the hat slide onto her head...encasing her and sloping over her eyes so that she could see only the dark weathered fabric as the brim of the sorting hat tickled the bridge of her nose.

"hmm, a difficult one. I feel you shiver girl, no need to be afraid I will sort you will the diligence and care I have applied for centuries. Alas, you are difficult to decipher for you contain contrasting attributes that suit you various places, you are clever and thoughtful...most prized by ravenclaw. But I sense within you, despite the shaking form I am presented with, lies inner strength and a core stability of unfaltering determination. Yet, something in you suggests you are linked in some way to slytherin, but you are so mismatched, maybe hufflepuff is your destiny, you seem a quiet and sweet girl."

"Eh hem" interrupted McGonagall, imploring that the sorting hat move along.

"Gryffindor"

A shocked silence fell over the room quickly before a slightly more subdued cheer from the Gryffindor tables. As the hat was lifted and the huge, fawn like eyes stared out with a look of terror etched across the sweet features, she sure didn't look like a Gryffindor...but the sorting hat was never wrong, was it?

Her body still racked with shivers and shakes she struggled to place one trembling foot in front of the other, walking toe to heel with the delicate softness of a feline or ballet dancer as if struggling against the fervent want to sink into the cool stone floor. Taking a seat with her fellow gryffindor's she felt hands patting her back and shoulders and could hear mumbled cheers, they were certainly friendly it seemed. What was she so worried about?

The following half hour or so passed in a blur and she was aware of no more than a distant drone from the hat that called out various house names and mused every now and again. She was fixated now, upon the skulking image of the potions master, Professor Severus Snape whose pallid expression looked blank, even scornful as he watched over the hall. He had a hook like nose and black curtains of hair that added to the sullen expression and overall dull outlook that resonated from the inky black eyes. She was still clutching the crumpled piece of parchment, with the spidery writing and smudged water stains from her adoring mother. She didn't know what it contained, just been told prior to leaving;

"Eva, you must give this to the potions master. His name is Professor Snape, he has black hair and is the head of slytherin house. You must give it to him without reading it, you will know in time but for now you must resist and we shall enjoy what time we have."

Her mother had been crying, and what she said had been making little sense. She made it sound like something was going to change forever? She was only going to school...It made no sense, even less so as Evangeline thought back over it.

"You're such a sweet child, I am blessed for you to call me 'mother'"

"But, you are my mum" Evangeline had laughed, fending off her teary mothers hands as they rearranged her hair and cradled her ivory cheeks.

"That's right" she had replied. It really did make very little sense, but she couldn't read the letter and she had to give it to Snape when she got the chance and she was sure that chance couldn't be far away. For now though, she would settle and stop poring over her memories of earlier that day because it didn't mean a thing, not a single thing...and that is what she would keep telling herself. It was then that the prestiged headmaster, Albus Dumbledore stood up to make a speech before the feast.

"Welcome students, new and old, to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry..." but Evangeline was already beginning to phase out and all she was aware of was the distant noises of those around her...wrapped in thought and thinking with a mixture of excitement and trepidation about the following days, weeks and year.


	2. A mysterious letter for Severus Snape

It was with a groggy determination that Evangeline pulled herself back into the land of the living from a slumber so sweet it seemed to embrace her senses with a warm resolve. She was tired, she had had a long day yesterday and she was tired.

"Wake up, you're going to be late" the clear, well enunciated voice belonged to a small girl with frizzy brown hair and a serious expression. Hermione Granger had introduced herself early on when Evangeline had taken a seat next to her following the sorting hats verdict. She was collected, sharp and confident and every bit the extrovert that Evangeline was not and this was, perhaps why she had warmed to her instantly.

"What time is it?" asked Evangeline meekly, rubbing the hazel green eyes with the small fists.

"Time you should be ready, breakfast is in an hour" replied Hermione matter of factly, taking a seat on the end of Evangeline's luxurious four poster bed and opening the book, 'Hogwarts: a history' which she held loosely in her hands, flicking the pages with furious dexterity as she sallied forth in her seemingly quenchless quest for knowledge.

"An hour? Really...I don't need to be up for ages yet, Hermione"

"Honestly, it's your first day. If you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail, really...sometimes I feel I am the ONLY one who truly wants to be here and actually learn" she trilled, getting up and pacing across the room, toward the door.

"I will see you at breakfast, and then later in charms. Good bye" she was so correct, so collected and part of Evangeline even felt envy, and emotion she was not familiar with. Yes, despite what the others might say; she quite liked Hermione Granger.

Still, it was early and she was tired and so she let herself be lulled back into the wonderful real of sleep and dreams. Her dreams were disturbed however, dancing images of strange people who lurked just out of sight...dancing in front of her tantalizingly close and laughing hysterically as she reached out to touch them only to have them flitter away. It felt only moments had passed until she was opening her eyes begrudgingly and picking her bedside clock up to see, with alarm that she had been asleep for over two hours and had missed breakfast entirely and was rapidly becoming at risk of being late for her first ever potions class.

"Oh no" she muttered to herself, throwing back the covers with violent force and dancing her way around the deserted room, pulling various articles on clothing on and running a brush through the straight, silken hair. Finally arriving at the far end, by the door, she peered quickly into the mirror and, deeming herself as respectable, sped down the spiral stairs and darted across the common room, ignoring the bizarrely freshly burning flames that roared with intensity, was someone else here too? No time to dwell, potions!

Echoing footsteps on hard stone floors, the sound ricocheting as the sinister torches in their cold, heavy brackets danced eerily on her luminescent skin. By the time she arrived she was panting and could feel a cool sweat prickling her brow uncomfortably.

"Sorry I'm late" she said, pushing open the door tentatively and stepping inside. The potions master, Professor Snape was circling like some terrible bird of prey and he turned the eyes upon her with a venomous glare.

"I would appreciate it if my students were on time, I don't think that is too much to ask even from people who are no doubt as simple as you in Gryffindor. I know you are not prized for your brains but reading a clock, I hope, is not too taxing for you. Sit." The voice was a low monotone drawl and Evangeline did as she was told without further word, dropping the gaze to the floor and shuffling forward to look for an unoccupied seat.

"psst, you can sit with me" the voice was hushed and she looked up to find the face of the boy she had met upon her arrival, the face of Harry Potter who at this moment was motioning toward the empty seat to his right.

"Thanks" she said, taking a seat lightly and dragging her books and quill from the depths of her bag.

"So, how come you're late?" he asked with a toothy grin, the green eyes glistening behind the rounded spectacles. His hair was pushed back now and she could clearly make out a lightning shaped mark, she wondered how he had got it...having been raised a muggle she was very out of touch with the current, or indeed the past events of the wizarding world, so knew nothing of the wonderful childhood exploits of the boy she sat next to.

"Don't ask, I was on time but Hermione got me up early so I thought I was safe to go back to sleep for a while and then clearly, I overslept. Stupid mistake really..." the soft voice was cut short by the startling appearance of Snape, baring down upon them with such speed that he almost exhibited the behaviour of the huge bird he resembled.

"Miss Adams, if you would mind ceasing your idle chatter to listen to something which might actually enhance that dull brain of yours"

"Sorry sir" the timid voice sounded beaten and she once again began studying the floor with fervent curiosity.

"But sir, it was me too. You can't just blame Evangeline" Harry spoke up in a noble manner, defending the friend he barely knew.

"Obviously" the response was dry and no sooner was it said Snape turned and with a swish of the velveteen black robes strode toward the other end of the classroom.

"Miss Adams, Mr Potter you will see me after class" and that was the matter concluded for now.

The rest of the lesson was fairly uneventful, with Evangeline retreating within herself and not uttering another word and Harry stealing glances at her every other minute, half through concern and half through an utter fascination with her. The lesson passed swiftly and soon the room was filled with the scrapes of chairs and the clinking of phials being stowed away into bags and onto shelves. Professor Snape had seemingly forgotten his want for them to stay, or simply had no time and he waved the two away upon their attempt to walk up to him and accept their lecture or punishment.

"Not worth my time" he hissed, directing his cold gaze toward Harry who looked back with determination and pride that the timid Evangeline envied, much like she did in Hermione.

"Thank you, Sir" said Harry with a politeness so correct it seemed to suggest a light flouncing of the authority he was confronted with. With that, he walked away motioning for Evangeline to join him but with a light shake of her head she declined, waving the letter in her hand slightly to suggest her reason.

"S-sir, I was told to give you this" the faltering squeak of a voice matched perfectly with the trembling hands and nervous set of her clenched jaw. She held out the scruffy letter, defaced with the water marks, ink stains and now the crumpled effect of excessive handling. Snape looked down at her, and then the letter with mild shock and distaste, not saying a word but taking the letter from her hand and beginning to read.

"Professor Severus Snape,

My name is Catherine Adams, you do not know me but I know all about you and more importantly the night you spent with the then Lily Evans all those many years ago. You are, of course, wondering how I know and why I am writing. Look to the girl who gave you this letter, she is beautiful, and she is yours. Lily was young and naive, she didn't mean for it to happen and was much too young to cope and so she entrusted her to me. She visited her often and was introduced as her cousin, but she has been raised with me as a muggle and now the time has come when she must attend Hogwarts and as such I feel I cannot conceal from her the truth of her origin. She is a bright girl and shows many attributes that we so prized in Lily, as you will notice she looks like Lily too. Except for the hair, I can only imagine this resolute blackness comes from you and I hope you look forward to being able to correspond with this lovely girl, you are blessed to be able to call her your own. It is up to you to decide your movements from now and I eagerly await the response from you, and in time...her.

Yours Faithfully,

Catherine Adams."

Evangeline did not know whether to leave or await some response and so hovered awkwardly, gazing at her shoes in that textbook fashion. You might have expected Snape to respond in some way, say something, do something upon the realisation that the only time he had been truly happy, and with the only person he had truly loved but who had not loved him, had produced a child but instead he felt a cool chill and nausea filling his gut.

"Thank you, you may leave now" he said coolly and watched as the shaking leaf of a girl, tripped and stumbled her way from the dark dungeon room. It was then that he strode to the nearest fire place that glowed with elegant pink flames and promptly threw the parchment into them, watching with grim satisfaction as the hungry crimson flames fed eagerly upon the yellow tinted parchment, the words; 'she is beautiful, and she is yours' fading slowly into charred oblivion.


End file.
